New Jersey

A registered nurse's privacy rights were not violated when she was suspended — and later fired for another reason — after an opinionated Facebook post from her was brought to her hospital supervisors' attention, a federal court has ruled.

The residents of four New York City-area adult health care facilities, who were not evacuated for Hurricane Sandy, were forced to move Tuesday before a new storm hit the area Wednesday. State and city health officials said three nursing homes and an adult care center in the Rockaways coastal section were being emptied of staff members and more than 600 residents before the nor'easter hit.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued blanket waivers that include skilled nursing providers. That means long-term care facilities in New York and New Jersey hit by the storm are authorized to process certified bed increases, and that certain data transmission requirements, such as those for the MDS, will be waived.

We humans tend to be creatures of habit. Most of us like to develop daily routines and stick with them. This approach has its benefits. It saves a lot of time that would otherwise be wasted sorting out mundane matters.

What a week for New Jersey. It started with the pro football team that has its roots there winning the Super Bowl, and it's going to end with a first-in-the-nation effort by the state's assisted living providers.

New Jersey will become the first state to require the use of a standardized form when a nursing home resident is transferred to a hospital, or when a resident is moved to a long-term care facility from the hospital.

Assisted Living Concepts found a loophole in Iowa's state law that lets care facilities avoid visits from state regulators by forfeiting licensure. Now it's looking to do the same with its facilities in New Jersey, The Des Moines Register reported.

New Jersey's state Legislature recently passed a measure that would set up escrow accounts to protect assisted living residents in the event of a facility shutdown. These protections would support residents who have been told that they could not be evicted from their facility once they are eligible for Medicaid.